Improvement in salt and pepper casters



.I. BIRD.

v v Salt and Pepper Casters. NO. 142,670. PatentedSep1ember9,1873.

WITNESSES; INVENTOR= UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN BIRD, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN SALT AND PEPPER CASTERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No- 142,670, dated September 9, 1873; application filed August 16, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN BIRD, of the city of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented a Combined Salt and Pepper Caster, of which the following is a specification My invention relates to a combination of salt and pepper bottles or boxes with a single supporting stem and foot, in such a manner that the Whole can be readily lifted by one hand and the contents of either of the bottles or boxes shaken out, as may be desired 5 the object of my said invention being to afford facility in selecting and using the particular condiment desired, or all of them in immediate succession, whether at table or on the bar of a restaurant.

Figure 1 represents in perspective one of my said casters having three distinct condiment-holders. Fig. 2 is a transverse section of Fig. 1, through the longitudinal centers of the three distinct condiment-holders. Fig. 3 represents in perspective one of my said casters, having only two holders upon the one stand. Fig. 4 is a vertical central section of Fig. 3. v

A is the supporting stem and base and B B B, the condiment-bottles. The bottles B are intended to be made of glass, molded with a screw-stem, b, projecting from the center of the bottom of each, and a mouth adapted for the usual perforated screw-cap b. Screwed down upon the upper end of the stem A is a center-piece, a, and into the respective sides of this center-piece the bottles B B are screwed up firmly, their respective bottoms abutting against the said centerpiece a, (see Figs. 2 and 4,) and thus retained in horizontal radial positions with their respective mouth ends outward, as shown in each of the figures. The stem A and its center-piece a may be made of hard wood, or the center-piece a of hard wood, and the stem and base of metal. The bottles may be substituted by sheet-metal boxes; or, where lightness in weight is desirable, the whole caster may be made of hard wood.

It will be readily understood without further explanation that the greatest facility will be afforded for the selection and use of either of the condiments in the respective bottles B, or of all of them in succession, without setting down and relifting the caster; and that, in shaking the condiment out of either, the condiments in the other or others will not spill out.

The invention is especially appropriate for restaurants, and will be found very serviceable and convenient at table, it being capable of being made highly ornamental, at much less cost than the usual whirling casters, with a distinct and separable bottle for each condiment.

Having thus fully described my combined salt and pepper caster, and its advantages, I claim as my invention- A combined salt and pepper caster, constructed as described, with the condiment bottles or boxes B B B arranged upon the supporting stem or base A, and projecting horizontally or radially therefrom, as and for the purposes specified.

JOHN BIRD. Witnesses:

BENJ. lVIORISON, WM. H. MORISON. 

